CAWTHRA: DRUNK THUG LET OFF FOR SCARRING MODEL
A 24-year-old who put an aspiring model out of work after glassing his face in Prince Harry’s favourite nightclub has today (Fri) been spared jail.
Adam Cawthra, 24, lashed out at Adam Newby after the two men collided on the dance floor at celebrity hotspot Mahiki, in Piccadilly, central London.
Southwark Crown Court heard that both men were too drunk to remember the incident in great detail, but Cawthra accepted he had struck Mr Newby.
CCTV footage footage from the club was also unclear.
Mr Newby needed stiches after suffering an injury to his left eye, and also underwent surgery to remove glass shards that had been embedded in his face – leaving him unable to work.
The attack took place at the nightclub – a favourite of Prince Harry and other Royals – in the early hours of October 22, 2010.
Cawthra was today handed a six month prison sentence, suspended for two months, after pleading guilty to wounding with intent.
Earlier in the day, Recorder Peter Susman QC had allowed another defendant to walk free for a similar assault.
He said: ‘If anybody had ever told me that twice in one day I would be faced with a glassing case and I would not send either of the defendants to prison I would have laughed out loud.
‘But this is what has happened today.’
He continued: ‘As far as you, Adam Cawthra, are concerned, you were on the dance floor in a club holding a glass in your hand as you danced.
‘You were pushed, you reacted, and the glass in your hand made contact with Adam Newby’s left eye – causing him injuries.
‘What is exceptional and different about this case is it is not very easy to work out what happened.
‘You were too drunk to remember and the victim was too drunk to remember.
‘There is CCTV, which I am told it is also not easy to see what happened from.
‘I do not really know if you deliberately pushed the glass into his face, if you did it without thinking or you did it entirely accidentally, therefore I feel I must give you the benefit of the doubt.
‘You are very far from being a drunken lout who loses his temper and is violent in a club or bar as a matter of course and punishing you is not likely to deter people who do that.
‘I am told that the victim is a male model and that he has lost the opportunities for work.
‘He has clearly suffered an eye injury and I am told there’s residual scarring.’
Mr Susman said that ‘normally’ the case would call for an immediate prison sentence, but that he felt able to suspend the sentence based on Cawthra’s good character, a series of references and as a result of the lack of details of the incident.
Cawthra, of (69) Osbourne Road, in Enfield, north London, was given a six month prison sentence suspended for 12 months and ordered to carry out 170 hours of unpaid work.
